Disease in Biological News

Alzheimer's disease drug treats traumatic brain injury, report GUMC researchers

Vienna, Austria The destructive cellular pathways activated in Alzheimer's disease are also triggered following traumatic brain injury, say researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC). They say this finding suggests that novel therapy might successfully target both conditions. ...

Results from trials of DHA in Alzheimer's disease and age-related cognitive decline

Vienna, July 12, 2009 Results from two large studies using DHA, an omega 3 fatty acid, were reported today at the Alzheimer's Association 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD 2009) in Vienna. One of the trials was conducted by the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (A...

Faster, more cost-effective DNA test for crime scenes, disease diagnosis

Scientists in Japan are reporting development of a faster, less expensive version of the fabled polymerase chain reaction (PCR) a DNA test widely used in criminal investigations, disease diagnosis, biological research and other applications. The new method could lead to expanded use of PCR in medi...

UTSA infectious disease researchers advancing vaccine against Valley fever

San Antonio Medical mycologists in The South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases (STCEID) and the Department of Biology at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) have significantly advanced the fight against San Joaquin Valley Fever, a respiratory infection of humans, commonly ca...

NIH expands Human Microbiome Project; funds sequencing centers and disease projects

The Human Microbiome Project has awarded more than $42 million to expand its exploration of how the trillions of microscopic organisms that live in or on our bodies affect our health, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced today. The human microbiome is all the microorganisms that...

Powe Award supports research on how enzymes enable the pathogenicity of 2 human disease organisms

Blacksburg, Va. -- Pablo Sobrado, assistant professor of biochemistry ( http://www.biochem.vt.edu/faculty.php?lname=Sobrado&view=yes ) with the infectious disease research group at Virginia Tech, has received a Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award for his research on enzymes that are ess...

Following the dietary guidelines may slow heart disease in women

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) provide guidance to promote health and reduce risk of chronic diseases. However, what evidence is there that following the DGA optimizes health? Is this advice useful for individuals already in poor health? To study these questions, researchers at the USD...

Huntington's disease deciphered

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have discovered how the mutated huntingtin gene acts on the nervous system to create the devastation of Huntington's disease. The report of their findings is available in Nature Neuroscience online. The researchers were ...

Enzyme involved in inflammatory bowel disease discovered at Penn State College of Medicine

Researchers at Penn State College of Medicine, working with biochemists, geneticists and clinicians at the University of Bern, Switzerland and in the United Kingdom, have discovered an enzyme that has a key role in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The team, co-led by Judith Bond, Ph.D., Distingui...

New device detects heart disease using less than one drop of blood

Testing people for heart disease might be just a finger prick away thanks to a new credit card-sized device created by a team of researchers from Harvard and Northeastern universities in Boston. In a research report published online in The FASEB Journal ( http://www.fasebj.org ), they describe h...

Liver disease 'shrunk' by blood-pressure drug

A blood-pressure medicine has been shown to reverse the effects of early-stage liver failure in some patients. Newcastle University researchers analysed a small clinical trial of losartan, a drug normally prescribed for hypertension, on 14 patients in Spain, who had Hepatitis C. The illness ...

Combined stem cell-gene therapy approach cures human genetic disease in vitro

LA JOLLA, CAA study led by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, has catapulted the field of regenerative medicine significantly forward, proving in principle that a human genetic disease can be cured using a combination of gene therapy and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell t...

Is vitamin D deficiency linked to Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia?

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, May 26, 2009 There are several risk factors for the development of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. Based on an increasing number of studies linking these risk factors with Vitamin D deficiency, an article in the current issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's D...

Genetic factors may predict depression in heart disease patients

PROVIDENCE, RI Individuals with heart disease are twice as likely to suffer from depression as the general population, an association the medical community has largely been unable to explain. Now, a new study by researchers at The Miriam Hospital, in conjunction with The Montral Heart Institute, ...

UCI awarded $45 million for infectious disease research

Irvine, Calif., May 12, 2009 The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded UC Irvine $45 million over five years for infectious disease research. The renewal grant, which is the campus's largest ever, went to the Paci...

'Coral Disease Handbook: Guidelines for Assessment, Monitoring and Management'

University of Guam Associate Professor Laurie Raymundo is senior editor and co-author of a new book on the etiology and management of coral diseases, " Coral Disease Handbook: Guidelines for Assessment, Monitoring & Management ." The book summarizes the most recently developed methods for studyin...

New insight into Alzheimer's disease pathology

An Alzheimer's-related protein helps form and maintain nerve cell connections, according to a study published in the May 4 print issue of the Journal of Cell Biology and online at www.jcb.org . The protein, called presenilin, is mutated in many cases of inherited Alzheimer's disease. Althoug...

Team identifies a molecular switch linking infectious disease and depression

Researchers at the University of Illinois report that IDO, an enzyme found throughout the body and long suspected of playing a role in depression, is in fact essential to the onset of depressive symptoms sparked by chronic inflammation. Their study, just published online in the Journal of Imm...

Gene linked to lupus might explain gender difference in disease risk

DALLAS March 30, 2009 In an international human genetic study, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified a gene linked to the autoimmune disease lupus, and its location on the X chromosome might help explain why females are 10 times more susceptible to the disease than males....

Difference in fat storage may explain lower rate of liver disease in African-Americans

DALLAS March 27, 2009 Where different ethnic groups store fat in their bodies may account for differences in the likelihood they'll develop insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found. According to research reported in th...

New wheat disease could spread faster than expected

CORVALLIS, Ore. Both plant and human diseases that can travel with the wind have the potential to spread far more rapidly than has been understood, according to a new study, in findings that pose serious concerns not only for some human diseases but also a new fungus that threatens global wheat p...

Nutrigenomics -- developing personalized diets for disease prevention -- part 2 just published in OMICS

New Rochelle, NY, March 17, 2009The relationships between food, nutrition science, and health outcomes have been intensively analyzed over the past century. Genomic variation among individuals and populations is a new factor that enriches and challenges our understanding of these complex relations...

Alzheimer's disease therapeutic prevents long-term damage from TBI in pre-clinical studies

WASHINGTON, D.C. A class of Alzheimer's disease drugs currently studied in clinical trials appears to reduce damage caused by traumatic brain injury in animals, researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center report in an upcoming advance online publication of Nature Medicine . They say t...

Metastatic bone disease patients can walk in Lazarus' footsteps

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (March 9, 2009)Osteoplastya highly effective minimally invasive procedure to treat the painful effects of metastatic bone disease by injecting bone cement to support weakened bonesprovides immediate and substantial pain relief, often presenting individuals who are suffering terri...

Portable kit may 1 day detect plant disease before disastrous outbreak

COLLEGE STATION This science may literally be outside the box: A briefcase-sized kit is carried to a field where thousands of tons of food are growing. The search is for microorganisms that could infect and kill the plants, wreaking havoc on the food supply and market. If the equipment in the ...

Calculating gene and protein connections in a Parkinson's disease model

FINDINGS: Researchers have created an algorithm that meshes existing data to produce a clearer step-by-step flow chart of how cells respond to stimuli. Using this new method, Whitehead Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists have analyzed alpha-synuclein toxicity to identify...

Parkinson's Disease Foundation awards $300,000 in bridge funding for innovative research projects

(February 19, 2009, New York, NY) The Parkinson's Disease Foundation (PDF) has awarded $300,000 in emergency bridge funding to four leading Parkinson's disease scientists. The grants will sustain promising investigations that were recently put into jeopardy by the sudden collapse of their primary...

Diet could reduce onset of eye disease by 20 percent

University of Liverpool scientists claim that the degeneration of sight, caused by a common eye disease, could be reduced by up to 20% by increasing the amount of fruit, vegetables and nuts in the diet. Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in the UK, with 45%...

Detecting disease in greenhouse plants

EDINBURG, TXGreenhouses are an integral part of U.S. agriculture. Nearly $200 million of food is produced in domestic greenhouses each year, and the facilities play a vital role in producing seeds and transplantable vegetation. Understanding how to keep greenhouse plants healthy can translate to i...

Researchers examine role of climate change in disease spread

GALVESTON, Texas Ever since scientists first proposed that our planet might be experiencing widespread climate change, concerns have been raised about its implications for the spread of arboviruses viruses carried by arthropods such as mosquitoes, midges and ticks. However, while alterations in ...

New insights into a leading poultry disease and its risks to human health

Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University associate research scientist Melha Mellata, a member of professor Roy Curtiss' team, is leading a USDA funded project to develop a vaccine against a leading poultry disease called avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC). APEC is part of a large, divers...

Researchers genetically link Lou Gehrig's disease in humans to dog disease

COLUMBIA, Mo. An incurable, paralyzing disease in humans is now genetically linked to a similar disease in dogs. Researchers from the University of Missouri and the Broad Institute have found that the genetic mutation responsible for degenerative myelopathy (DM) in dogs is the same mutation that c...

The heart disease mutation carried by 60 million

Heart disease is the number one killer in the world and India carries more than its share of this burden. Moreover, the problem is set to rise: it is predicted that by 2010 India's population will suffer approximately 60% of the world's heart disease. Today, an international team of 25 scientists ...

MUHC and McGill scientists explain genetic disease first discovered in Quebec 24 years ago

This release is available in French . Scientists at the MUHC and McGill University have identified a gene essential for the uptake of vitamin B12 in human cells. The discovery of this gene finally completes a 24 year-old hunt for the cause of an incredibly rare genetic disorder called, cbl...

Team finds breast cancer gene linked to disease spread

A team of researchers at Princeton University and The Cancer Institute of New Jersey has identified a long-sought gene that is fatefully switched on in 30 to 40 percent of all breast cancer patients, spreading the disease, resisting traditional chemotherapies and eventually leading to death. Th...

Mothers pass on disease clues to offspring

When there is a threat of disease during pregnancy, mothers produce less aggressive sons with more efficient immune systems, researchers at The University of Nottingham have discovered. The study provides the first evidence for a transgenerational effect on immune response based on environmenta...

Nutrigenomics -- developing personalized diets for disease prevention

New Rochelle, NY, December 29, 2008The emerging field of nutrigenomics, which aims to identify the genetic factors that influence the body's response to diet and studies how the bioactive constituents of food affect gene expression, is explored in a series of provocative, interdisciplinary report...

Patient-derived induced stem cells retain disease traits

MADISON When neurons started dying in Clive Svendsen's lab dishes, he couldn't have been more pleased. The dying cells the same type lost in patients with the devastating neurological disease spinal muscular atrophy confirmed that the University of Wisconsin-Madison stem cell biologist had r...

Vitamin D deficiency in infants and nursing mothers carries long-term disease risks

New Rochelle, NY, December 16, 2008Once believed to be important only for bone health, vitamin D is now seen as having a critical function in maintaining the immune system throughout life. The newly recognized disease risks associated with vitamin D deficiency are clearly documented in a report in...

Rare disease provides clues about enzyme role in arrhythmias

A University of Iowa study provides insight into a calcium-sensing enzyme already known to play a role in irregular heartbeats and other critical functions. The researchers showed that the enzyme, calmodulin kinase II (CaM kinase II), contributes to arrhythmia in an extremely rare disease called T...